Before we address what men and women are to remember in order to stand strong in our faith, we will begin our Friday Focus with a look at God. Yes, there will be things and peoples God remembers, but first we’ll address what he forgets. Why is that important? Because, just as sin and death must be defeated before all things can be made new, we will never rest in our eternal state without knowing God has indeed forgotten those sins we committed against him.
So, today and this year of focus begins with the hope that comes in the promise of God’s forgetfulness. It’s not a random state or one that comes because he’s old and just doesn’t remember—no, God forgets as an act of his divine will. He chooses to forget. Let’s look at some of the scriptures that he’s left us with this promise.
For his own sake, he forgets our sins.
The forty-third chapter of Isaiah is a beautiful chapter on the Savior of Israel. It begins with how he redeemed them and called them by name. He reminds them of how he has been with them through trials and is a God like no other. They are to be his witnesses. But they sinned and rebelled against the God who loved them. What did he do? Sent them into exile for their own good to shake them out of their stubborn ways. Still, they did not turn back to him. They turned toward the gods of their captors and turned their backs on the God of their forefathers.
Of all the things he did for them, of all the reasons they should have stayed true to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, verse twenty-five should be cause enough.
“I am the one, I sweep away your transgressions for my own sake and remember your sins no more. (Isaiah 43:25 CSB)
Over and over again, God had blotted out the sins of his wayward people. He’d chosen to forget them, not because they deserved forgetting, no, but for his own sake. In order to keep his covenant of love, he had to forget and give chance after chance for them to turn back in obedience.
To forget, a new covenant was required.
Though the people should have been moved to return to worship of the one true God by his desire to forget, they did not. The Law that was given to help them proved inadequate and only pointed out the severity of their transgressions. God was not surprised. He knew the weaknesses of those he called. He had a plan, and it was the requirement for a new covenant to be established and cut through the spilling of righteous blood. Where would he find such a sacrifice? In his only begotten Son.
It is in Hebrews that we find reference to Jeremiah’s prophecy and the connection to the new High Priest who is also the sacrificial Lamb. The time had come, the Lord shares with his people through the prophet, for a new covenant that would enable him to once again completely forget the sins that stood in the way of any relationship being established between God and Man. This covenant would accomplish what the Law was incapable of doing.
And each person will not teach his fellow citizen, and each his brother or sister, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will forgive their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins. (Hebrews 8:11-12, quoting from Jeremiah 31)
Again, God would not only forget but forgive their sin. Forgive is a new word in this ancient prophecy, and it is made possible by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. We have forgiveness of sin because of Christ. God forgets our sin because of Christ. That is a guaranteed forgetfulness that can only come through faith in Christ Jesus and his act of propitiation on our behalf.
All sin is forgotten in the New Heaven and New Earth.
Ultimately, our sin, the trials and struggles we’ve experienced while living in a dark and evil place in our weakened state, all this will be forgotten by our Heavenly Father who welcomes us into the restored Eden for eternity. If everything is to be made new, then the past must be wiped away. This includes our sin, each harsh word and deed, every evil thought and action; all hatred and evil desire. There can be no true New without the forgetting of the old.
We go back to Isaiah for insight. God speaks through the prophet of his judgment and salvation of the remnant. The new land will be blessed by God as past troubles are forgotten.
Whoever asks for a blessing in the land will ask for a blessing by the God of truth, and whoever swears in the land will swear by the God of truth. For the former troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my sight. “For I will create new heavens and a new earth; the past events will not be remembered or come to mind. (Isaiah 65:16-17)
How can we bless another without forgetting past hurts? God has made a way to not only forget but to forgive wayward souls through the sacrifice of his Son. Those who trust in him will be welcomed into the new Kingdom where past events will not be remembered or even come to mind. Oh, what a blessing that will be.
Are you struggling to come to God because you think you’re not good enough and you’ve done some “stuff” in your life? Have hope! The God who loves you has the ability to forgive and forget. He welcomes you with open arms, forgetting your past. He makes all things new in you and in the place he’s prepared for you to live with no regret or shame. He’s forgotten. You will too.
Grace and Peace
If you missed the last Friday Focus post, click HERE.